addMobility

Add random waypoint mobility model to Bluetooth LE node

Since R2023b

Syntax

addMobility(blenode)

addMobility(blenode,Name=Value)

Description

This feature also requires the Wireless Network Toolbox™ product.

addMobility(blenode) adds a default mobility model (random waypoint) to Bluetooth^® low energy (LE) nodes, blenode. In the random waypoint model, a wireless node pauses for some duration at a location before moving towards its next random destination (waypoint) with a random speed. The node repeats this process at each waypoint.

addMobility(blenode,Name=Value) sets the mobility configuration parameters using one or more optional name-value arguments. For example, PauseDuration=0.02 sets the pause duration of a Bluetooth LE node to 0.02 seconds. If you add the mobility model to multiple wireless nodes in a single addMobility function call, all the nodes use the mobility parameter values specified by the name-value arguments.

Examples

Create, Configure, and Simulate Bluetooth LE Network with Custom Channel

This example enables you to:

1. Create and configure a Bluetooth LE piconet with Central and Peripheral nodes.

2. Create and configure a link layer (LL) connection between Central and Peripheral nodes.

3. Add application traffic from the Central to Peripheral nodes.

4. Create a custom channel, and plug it into the wireless network simulator.

5. Simulate Bluetooth LE network and retrieve the statistics of the Central and Peripheral nodes.

Create a wireless network simulator.

networkSimulator = wirelessNetworkSimulator.init;

Create a Bluetooth LE node, specifying the role as "central". Specify the name and position of the node.

centralNode = bluetoothLENode("central",Name="CentralNode");
centralNode.Position = [0 0 0];                 % In x-, y-, and z-coordinates in meters

Create a Bluetooth LE node, specifying the role as "peripheral". Specify the name and position of the node.

peripheralNode = bluetoothLENode("peripheral",Name="PeripheralNode");
peripheralNode.Position = [10 0 10]              % In x-, y-, and z-coordinates in meters

peripheralNode = 
  bluetoothLENode with properties:

        TransmitterPower: 20
         TransmitterGain: 0
            ReceiverGain: 0
     ReceiverSensitivity: -100
             NoiseFigure: 0
    InterferenceModeling: "overlapping-adjacent-channel"
                    Role: "peripheral"
        ConnectionConfig: [0×0 bluetoothLEConnectionConfig]
               CISConfig: [0×0 bluetoothLECISConfig]
                Position: [10 0 10]
                    Name: "PeripheralNode"
                Mobility: []

   Read-only properties:
                      ID: 2
                Velocity: [0 0 0]

Add a random waypoint mobility model to the Bluetooth peripheral node. Set the shape of the node's mobility area to "circle".

addMobility(peripheralNode,BoundaryShape="circle",RefreshInterval=0.1)

Create a default Bluetooth LE configuration object to share the LL connection between the Central and Peripheral nodes.

cfgConnection = bluetoothLEConnectionConfig;

Specify the connection interval and connection offset. Throughout the simulation, the object establishes LL connection events for the duration of each connection interval. The connection offset is from the beginning of the connection interval.

cfgConnection.ConnectionInterval = 0.01; % In seconds
cfgConnection.ConnectionOffset = 0;      % In seconds

Specify the active communication period after the connection event is established between the Central and Peripheral nodes.

cfgConnection.ActivePeriod = 0.01 % In seconds

cfgConnection = 
  bluetoothLEConnectionConfig with properties:

    ConnectionInterval: 0.0100
         AccessAddress: "5DA44270"
          UsedChannels: [0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36]
             Algorithm: 1
          HopIncrement: 5
     CRCInitialization: "012345"
    SupervisionTimeout: 1
               PHYMode: "LE1M"
         InstantOffset: 6
      ConnectionOffset: 0
          ActivePeriod: 0.0100
                MaxPDU: 251
                  TIFS: 1.5000e-04
                 TMCES: 1.5000e-04

Configure the connection between Central and Peripheral nodes by using the configureConnection object function of the bluetoothLEConnectionConfig object.

configureConnection(cfgConnection,centralNode,peripheralNode);

Create a networkTrafficOnOff (Wireless Network Toolbox) object to generate an On-Off application traffic pattern. Specify the data rate in kb/s and the packet size in bytes. Enable packet generation to generate an application packet with a payload.

traffic = networkTrafficOnOff(DataRate=100,PacketSize=10);

Add application traffic from the Central to the Peripheral node by using the addTrafficSource object function.

addTrafficSource(centralNode,traffic,DestinationNode=peripheralNode);

Create a Bluetooth LE network consisting of a Central and a Peripheral node.

nodes = {centralNode peripheralNode};

Add the Central and Peripheral nodes to the wireless network simulator.

addNodes(networkSimulator,nodes)

Add the custom channel to the wireless network simulator.

addChannelModel(networkSimulator,@addImpairment);

Set the simulation time in seconds and run the simulation.

simulationTime = 0.5;
run(networkSimulator,simulationTime)

Retrieve application, link layer (LL), and physical layer (PHY) statistics corresponding to the Central and Peripheral nodes. For more information about the statistics, see Bluetooth LE Node Statistics.

centralStats = statistics(centralNode)

centralStats = struct with fields:
    Name: "CentralNode"
      ID: 1
     App: [1×1 struct]
      LL: [1×1 struct]
     PHY: [1×1 struct]

peripheralStats = statistics(peripheralNode)

peripheralStats = struct with fields:
    Name: "PeripheralNode"
      ID: 2
     App: [1×1 struct]
      LL: [1×1 struct]
     PHY: [1×1 struct]

Follow these steps to create a custom channel that models Bluetooth path loss for an industrial scenario.

• Create a custom function with this syntax: rxData = customFcnName(rxInfo,txData). The rxInfo input specifies the receiver node information as a structure, and the txData input specifies the transmitted packets as a structure. The simulator automatically passes information about the receiver node and the packets transmitted by a transmitter node as inputs to the custom function. For more information about creating custom channel, see the addChannelModel (Wireless Network Toolbox) object function.

• Use the bluetoothPathLossConfig object to set path loss configuration parameters for an industrial scenario.

• Calculate path loss between the Central and Peripheral nodes using the bluetoothPathLoss function. Specify the transmitter and receiver positions.

• Apply path loss to the transmitted packets.

function rxData = addImpairment(rxInfo,txData)

    pathlossCfg = bluetoothPathLossConfig(Environment="Industrial");

    % Apply path loss and update output signal
    rxData = txData;

    % Calculate the distance between transmitter and receiver in meters
    distance = norm(rxData.TransmitterPosition - rxInfo.Position);
    pathloss = bluetoothPathLoss(distance,pathlossCfg);
    rxData.Power = rxData.Power-pathloss;                           % In dBm
    scale = 10.^(-pathloss/20);
    [numSamples,~] = size(rxData.Data);
    rxData.Data(1:numSamples,:) = rxData.Data(1:numSamples,:)*scale;
end

Input Arguments

blenode — Bluetooth LE node

bluetoothLENode object | vector of bluetoothLENode objects

Bluetooth LE node, specified as a bluetoothLENode object or a vector of bluetoothLENode objects.

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: addMobility(blenode,PauseDuration=0.02) sets the pause duration for a Bluetooth LE node, after it reaches a target waypoint, to 0.02 seconds.

MobilityModel — Mobility model

"random-waypoint" (default) | "random-walk" | "constant-velocity" | object of subclass of wnet.Mobility.

Mobility model, specified as "random-waypoint", "random-walk", "constant-velocity", or an object of a subclass of wnet.Mobility. When you provide a custom mobility object, the function generates a copy of the mobility model object and associates it with the node. Consequently, after the function assigns the mobility model to the node, changes you make to the original mobility model object do not affect the node.

If you specify a custom mobility model object, the function ignores any other mobility parameters provided as name-value arguments.

SpeedRange — Speed range

[0.415 1.66] (default) | two-element numeric vector

Speed range, specified as a two-element numeric vector. The function sets the speed of the Bluetooth LE node according to a continuous uniform distribution based on this range. The first element of the vector specifies the minimum speed of the node, while the second specifies the maximum speed, in meters per second.

To set the speed to a constant value, specify SpeedRange as a two-element row vector with identical values.

Dependencies

To specify this argument, you must specify the MobilityModel argument as "random-waypoint" or "random-walk".

Data Types: double

PauseDuration — Pause duration of Bluetooth LE node

0 (default) | nonnegative scalar

Pause duration of the Bluetooth LE node after reaching a target waypoint, specified as a nonnegative scalar. Units are in seconds.

Dependencies

To specify this argument, you must specify the MobilityModel argument as "random-waypoint".

Data Types: double

BoundaryShape — Shape of node mobility area

"rectangle" (default) | "circle"

Shape of the node mobility area, specified as "rectangle" or "circle".

Dependencies

To specify this argument, you must specify the MobilityModel argument as "random-waypoint" or "random-walk".

Data Types: char | string

Bounds — Center coordinates and dimensions of mobility area

three-element numeric vector | four-element numeric vector

Center coordinates and dimensions of the mobility area, specified as a three-element or four-element numeric vector, depending on the value of the BoundaryShape argument. Units are in meters.

• "rectangle" — Specify a four-element numeric vector of the form [x_center y_center length width]. The default value is [x_current y_current 10 10], where the first two elements specify the xy-coordinates of current node position.

• "circle" — Specify a three-element numeric vector of the form [x_center y_center radius]. The default value is [x_current y_current 10], where the first two elements specify the xy-coordinates of current node position.

Dependencies

To specify this argument, you must specify the MobilityModel argument as "random-waypoint" or "random-walk".

Data Types: double

WalkMode — Mode of random walk

"time" (default) | "distance"

Since R2026a

Mode of random walk, specified as "time" or "distance".

Dependencies

To specify this argument, you must specify the MobilityModel argument as "random-walk".

Time — Time after which speed and direction change

1 (default) | positive scalar

Since R2026a

Time after which the speed and direction change, specified as a positive scalar. Units are in seconds.

Dependencies

To specify this argument, you must specify the WalkMode argument as "time" and the MobilityModel argument as "random-walk".

Data Types: double

Distance — Distance after which the speed and direction change

1 (default) | positive scalar

Since R2026a

Distance after which the speed and direction change, specified as a positive scalar. Units are in meters.

Dependencies

To specify this argument, you must specify the WalkMode argument as "distance" and the MobilityModel argument as "random-walk".

Data Types: double

Velocity — Current node velocity

[0 0 0] (default) | three-element numeric row vector

Since R2026a

Current node velocity in Cartesian x-, y-, and z-coordinates, specified as a numeric vector of the form [v_x v_y v_z]. v_x, v_y, and v_z are velocity components in the x-, y-, and z-directions, respectively. Units are in meters per second.

Dependencies

To specify this argument, you must specify the MobilityModel argument as "constant-velocity".

Data Types: double

RefreshInterval — Refresh Interval

0.1 (default) | nonnegative scalar

Since R2026a

Refresh Interval, specified as a nonnegative scalar. This argument indicates how often the node updates its position and velocity information, with a single refresh occurring at each fixed interval. The units are in seconds.

Data Types: double

References

[1] Bluetooth Technology Website. “Bluetooth Technology Website | The Official Website of Bluetooth Technology.” Accessed January 10, 2026. https://www.bluetooth.com/.

[2] Bluetooth Core Specifications Working Group. "Bluetooth Core Specification" v6.1. https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/core-specification-6-1/.

Version History

Introduced in R2023b

R2026a: Moved to Bluetooth Toolbox and requires Wireless Network Toolbox

Starting in R2026a, this feature is available in Bluetooth Toolbox and also requires a Wireless Network Toolbox license. In prior releases, the feature is available through the Communications Toolbox™ Wireless Network Simulation Library add-on.

R2026a: New name-value arguments in addMobility

The addMobility function supports these new name-value arguments: MobilityModel, WalkMode, Time, Distance, Velocity, and RefreshInterval.